Abstract:The development and formation of the Yellow River, the largest river in North China, is of great significance to the establishment of the three terrains in North China. But so far, there is a great controversy about the formation age of the Yellow River. In this case, we have carried out the analysis of detrital zircon U-Pb ages (n=240) of the rivers derived from the Central Luzhong Shan, compared with those of the Liao River, Luan River, Yongding River, Hutuo River, Zhang River and the Yellow River flowing into the Bohai Bay Basin. The results show that the Yellow River is the characteristic river of the Bohai Bay Basin due to its significant Neoproterozoic peak ages (1000~700 Ma). The systematic evolution information of big river kept by the clastic sediments deposited in the downstream of river, therefore, we compared the detrital zircon U-Pb peak age of the lower reaches of the Yellow River with the drilling cores within the Bohai Bay Basin. Combining multi-dimensional discrimination diagram (MDS) results, it shows that the Yellow River did not flow into the Bohai Bay Basin during the Miocene.